Monday, September 16, 2013

Come Monday...The Washington Bureaucrats

“Come Monday…” is a
weekly series that will involve a review of (or commentary about) websites,
movies, documentaries, television shows, sports, music, and whatever else may
tickle my fancy at the time. Be assured
that these reviews will be generally positive, as in accordance to the Jimmy
Buffett song “Come Monday.” This is
subject to change, however. In fact, I
would be most derelict in my duties to neglect going on a rant every once in a
while. For rants promote change, and
change can be good—right? Therefore,
since good is generally considered as being a positive force in 99.3% of the
parallel universes that I am aware of, even a rant could be considered as being
something positive, and a genuine hissy-fit would be even better (so I’m told).

This
started out to be quite a rant. For the [“stuff”] is starting to hit the proverbial fan again over the name of the [Washington Redskins], and I do not see where anyone should find it offensive.

Yes,
“redskins” is indeed racist. That is, at
least in the broadest sense of the term.
For only Indians (feather, not dot) are referred to as being redskins,
but in order for it to be reasonably considered offensive, it must be used in a
derogatory manner.

No,
calling an Indian a redskin has never been the same as calling a black person
the “n” word. Of course, some have used
it in the same way, but it does not carry the same meaning to most Indians.

Be
assured that I know a thing or two about what I am trying to say. For aside from coming into contact with Indians
all over this country during my adventures, my mom’s father was a full-blood [Cherokee],
which would have made her half-Indian, along with being half-Irish. Now, if you were to have called her a
half-breed, or just a breed, you would have seen her get her Irish up and go on
the warpath, but she did not mind being called a redskin at all. Neither did my Uncle Paul, who was a
full-blood [Choctaw].

Besides,
in the case of the NFL team in Washington, D.C., the name is meant as an
expression of pride (along with hoping to strike fear into the hearts and minds
of their opponents). Is that not the way
it is for all sports teams? After all, do you think that the
owners of the [Carolina Panthers] wanted to call their team that on
account of panthers being generally recognized as being cute and cuddly?

Okay,
maybe I need to back up just a little on that sort of reasoning. For when nerdy academics are involved, the
names of their athletic teams do not always make a whole lot of sense to the
rest of us (take the [Maryland Terrapins] for an example).

In
all fairness, it may have been that the area around what is now known as [CollegePark, Maryland] was overrun with box turtles when the beginnings of the University
of Maryland was established there in 1856, and a bite from a box turtle can
cause a nasty infection. Since this was
before much was known about infections, one of their bites could have led to death. So, encountering a bunch of box turtles would
have been a fearful thing.

I must admit that I do not know what someone was thinking when they chose the [Kewpies] for Columbia
(MO) Hickman High School. I am also in quite
a quandary over the Sparta (MO) Trojans.
Although, for a different reason.

Until
I received some more information last Saturday morning, I was going to propose
a compromise of changing the name of the Redskins to the Natives, and I thought
that would be a very good one. For the
team could keep all of their icons while giving political correctness an
obvious nod.

Oh,
but I now know that this would not be enough.
For the trouble is not so much about the team being named the Redskins as it is more about where it is located. For it was various
administrations in Washington over the years, who broke all of the treaties
with the Indians, and then left them to fend for themselves after taking away practically
everything they had to work with.

Alas,
it was really no different in America than it has been everywhere else over the
ages, but the ugly details to the conquering of this land are still relatively fresh. After all, there is not anyone screaming
about the NBA team in Boston being called the [Celtics] because the [Celts]
were conquered and absorbed into the civilizations that took over their
territories hundreds of years ago.
Whereas, there were still parts of this country under the control of
various Indian tribes just 125 years ago (or so).

Nonetheless,
there is much about the history of America that we should be deeply ashamed
of. Therefore, if changing the name of
the Redskins will make some Indians happy, so be it, but I now realize that
changing it to the Natives is not the answer.

How
about changing it to the Bureaucrats?
Would this not strike fear into the hearts and minds of men and women of
all colors and creeds? Oh yeah, just
slap a Treasury Department seal on the sides of their helmets, and you would see
300 hundred-pound men on the opposing team crawling back to their sideline and
crying to their coach, “Come on man, those
are IRS auditors on that defensive line!”

6 comments:

The way things work these days, I would say that no matter what name they choose there will be at least one person who will find it offensive. I guess they no longer teach that little rhyme about sticks and stones.

Since the Blogger spam filter has been found sorely lacking lately, I will start moderating comments. Be assured that I am only interested in deleting spam. So, if you feel a need to take me to task over something—even anonymously, go ahead and let 'er rip, and I will publish it as soon as I can.

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